McXal's Reviews

It is the eve of Death Before Dishonor 2023, and we head to Canada for one last burst of Ring Of Honor action before the second big pay-per-view event of the year. Highlights of the scheduled card today include the finals of the TV Title Eliminator Tournament with Shane Taylor and Dalton Castle squaring off for the chance to challenge Samoa Joe at the ppv, plus Stardom's Utami Hayashishita coming in to face The Infantry's Trish Adora. Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman are on commentary, and are actually in the building tonight - in Calgary, AB 

We open with the announcement that Daniel Garcia will challenge Shibata for the Pure Title at Death Before Dishonor, and a video package documenting the growing rivalry between then as DG believes the Japanese legend doesn't respect him. 

This is a tune-up match for Garcia as he prepares for Shibata on pay-per-view tomorrow night. That means he will be expected to deliver a dominant performance, and will want to send a message to the Pure Champion before their big showdown.

Garcia is openly disrespectful to his opponent in the first minute, which the commentators call a mistake as Geiger is a martial arts black belt. Of course, just a glimpse of Garcia's silly dance has the crowd popping far more than any of the wrestling exchanges they run through early on too. Jason gets into Garcia's head by doing the dance back at him - unsettling DG to such an extent that Geiger is able to lock in an armbar and force Daniel to use a rope-break. Garcia reacts angrily; throttling him against the ropes then stomping his abdomen repeatedly in the corner. Swinging front facelock applied...but Geiger POWERS out into a dead-lift suplex. The Canadian crowd are really behind Jason now, cheering each strike and counting down as he gets a close nearfall off a butterfly suplex. They grapple back and forth and it all gets rather scruffy, and doesn't get much tidier when Garcia drops him with a spinebuster. Boston Crab by Garcia, countered to a triangle choke by Geiger. But Garcia powerbombs out then locks in the Sharpshooter to win at 07:10

Rating - DUD - Ring Of Honor matches never get any time these days, but for some reason a Pure Rules SQUASH gets more than seven minutes?! The live audience had fun cheering on the local hero, but 24 hours before he challenges for the Pure Title I'm at a loss to explain how floundering around with a local enhancement talent (and looking pretty lacklustre/sloppy at points) does anything to benefit Garcia. 

Katsuyori Shibata's music hits and he marches to the ring for a stare-down with Garcia. 

This is Trish's first singles match since joining forces with The Infantry. We've seen her go back to basics after several high profile defeats in ROH's women's division - training as a Young Lion in the NJPW US dojo and building herself back. Facing one of Stardom's top stars will undoubtedly be an enormous test for her.

Utami has her entrance cut, which is an absolute joke. They battle for superiority on the canvas, and Trish is clearly more comfortable holding Hayashishita down and grappling with her than she is on a vertical base with the Joshi star. She works Utami's arm with a variety of submissions, visibly growing in confidence with each passing minute. Hayashishita drills her with a spinebuster then a sliding lariat for 2 though. Her arm gives out going for a body slam though, further demonstrating the extent of the damage Adora has inflicted. They trade elbows...but Hayashishita continues to struggle with her arm and can't get her opponent up for a German suplex. Arm-wrench into a boot strike by Adora to capitalise on that. Lariat Tubman COUNTERED TO A GERMAN! BRIDGING GERMAN by Utami gets 2, and again she comes out nursing the arm. She tries to load up the Air Raid Crash but Adora blocks it by capturing the arm in another submission! She steamrolls through Utami with a crossbody block then levels her with a bicycle kick for 2. SLIDING GERMAN SUPLEX...UTAMI KICKS OUT! RACK BOMB BY HAYASHISHITA! Hijack Bomb nailed, and Utami grabs the win at 09:17

Rating - *** - The best match on Honor Club TV for quite a while. It's a shame we couldn't have taken a huge chunk of the pointless time given to Garcia/Geiger and let these two women have more like fifteen as the only thing holding this match back was how much they were having to rush to compress all the drama in. Utami did her best to sell her arm, but was still having to work at a hundred miles per hour. Similarly Adora tried to give the impression she was slowing the Stardom athlete and dominating her at a methodical pace - but with just nine minutes she never had the scope to flesh that out to any great extent. Still, this was good stuff and well worth checking out. 

This is the final of the Eliminator Tournament to crown a #1 contender for the TV Title, with the winner advancing to challenge Samoa Joe at Death Before Dishonor. Both men were stalwarts of the old regime and both have held the TV Title in the past. Will it be the style and flamboyance of Castle, or the grit and violence of Shane T which emerges victorious?

Castle wants no part of trading strikes with Taylor and struts around the ring with The Boys playing mindgames instead. He tries to grapple and wrestle...but can't get Shane off his feet and is left nursing his sore back. Finally he kicks out the legs and hits a DDT, with such force that Taylor actually retreats to the apron. But from there he blasts Dalton, then hits a TOWER OF LONDON TO THE FLOOR! Dalton is in serious trouble - made worse when Shane hits a sidewalk slam further damaging the back. Forearms to the injured spine follow, then an urinage slam and a Warrior Splash right across the midsection for 2. Dalton tries to rally...and almost snags a flash pin by countering a sleeper hold. He trips Taylor to the outside, and flies out after him with the tiger feint headscissors off the apron! Castle tries an exploder suplex, but can't get Taylor up and EATS a headbutt. EXPLODER SUPLEX BY CASTLE! Julie Newmar Bulldog gets 2. EVEREST GERMAN SUPLEX! But did that do too much damage to the back? BANG-A-RANG NAILED! Castle wins at 08:33

Rating - *** - The match was good, with Taylor spending the first half looking like a killer as he threw off everything Castle tried and dominated him with bruising offence. But Castle has spent his career being a resilient underdog and he was once again able to shake off severe damage to his back and find a way to secure victory. His flurry of offence which brought him home - the Exploder, the bulldog, the German and then the Bang-A-Rang - was a tremendously exciting sequence. 

Daniel Garcia isn't the only former ROH Pure Champion eyeing up another opportunity to hold that prize. Woods is another, and he too is in Pure Rules action tonight looking to stake his claim for a shot.

Stone holds his own trading holds with the former Pure Champion, but is distracted by the presence of Tony Nese and Ari Daivari barking and yelling at him from the floor. He gives away a cheap rope-break being backed into the corner by Josh...and is stripped of a second rope-break moments later to escape the Gorilla Lock. Knee strike by Woods, then an Anarchist Brainbuster to win at 02:40

Rating - N/A - I liked this considerably more than Garcia/Geiger from earlier. You'd think Ring Of Honor would be the perfect place for someone like Woods, but he has featured only sporadically since the relaunch, and rarely works particularly lengthy matches. Perhaps this is the start of him building something. 

Tony Khan announces that after winning the Owen Hart Foundation Women's Tournament in AEW (including defeating Athena along the way), Willow Nightingale will challenge Athena for the ROH Women's World Title at Death Before Dishonor. 

Later we see Athena angrily remonstrate with Board Members Jerry Lynn and Stokely Hathaway, furious at the decision to put her in the ring with Willow again. Tony Khan pops up in this segment as well and refuses to change his decision.

It is another Proving Ground Match for Athena, and this time she is so pissed off at having to defend against Nightingale at the PPV that she hasn't bothered to change into her ring gear; instead competing in street clothes with an incredibly sour expression on her face.

The commentators speculate on the impact of losing for the first time in such a prolonged period will have on Athena. She sits slouched in the corner and basically ignores Nikita as the bell rings...before finally snapping and DESTROYING her with a single knock-out elbow strike. Athena wins at 00:53

Rating - N/A - Initially I was irritated that Tony decided to end Athena's dominant winning streak to suit AEW's purposes, on an AEW show. But I do like the way they've used that loss to add some depth to her character on ROH TV, and to set up a championship match on a Ring Of Honor show. As a vehicle to further Athena's character development this was a fun squash.

Athena delivers a vicious post-match beating to Nikita, but is then confronted by Willow Nightingale. The champ flees up the aisle rather than fight Willow...

The Righteous have been on a dominant tear on Ring Of Honor television recently. They are preparing for a decisive showdown with long-time rivals the Dark Order so will hope to send one final message to them tonight, at the expense of Dalton Castle's Boys.

Dutch takes out both Tate Twins before the bell even rings, giving an immediate advantage to The Righteous. Inverted suplex/sliding flatliner combo on Brandon gets 2. Brent tags, but can't get Dutch off his feet before being steamrollered with a tackle. Autumn Sunshine by Vincent, securing the win at 02:15

Rating - N/A - As a squash to promote The Righteous this was fine. I liked that Dutch (who doesn't generally get much chance to showcase his skills) got plenty of time in the ring this week. My biggest problem with this is that it took The Kingdom - who are being pushed as Tag Title contenders - almost ten minutes to beat The Boys last week. Again, there is just no long-term vision or forethought being put into ROH. It's just Dark; just a series of random matches slung together each week...

Evil Uno appears on the apron, so Stu Grayson hits Nightfall on one of The Boys to send a message to him. The former Smash Bros stare and yell angrily at each other as the scene fades out...

Former SHIMMER Champion Nicole is an incredibly experienced, accomplished and dangerous veteran. She had years of her career taken from her due to visa difficulties (right after she'd been on TV with the WWE) but has been on the periphery of AEW/ROH programming whenever they've been in Canada recently. This is her first ROH match since 2009, and has the imposing prospect of facing the recently returned Hirsch - who is intent on tearing through the roster and using ROH's women's division as a platform to relaunch her career after a serious knee injury.

Hirsh looks to take the match to the mat, but Matthews has plenty of experience and is well-equipped to hold her own on the canvas. Leyla sneaks in a few cheeky slaps to the face, but Nicole maintains her composure and gets right back to grappling with Hirsch on the mat. Armdrags and a dropkick from the former SHIMMER Champion! Leyla doesn't like that and traps her in the corner where she delivers a series of forearms and kicks. Matthews tries to come out swinging...but Leyla deposits her face-first on the canvas and mounts her for more big forearm strikes. Neckbreaker by Nicole, trying to set Hirsch up for some of her finishers...but Leyla rolls her through into a thunderous knee strike. Hirsch wins at 04:04

Rating - ** - If I was booking ROH, Matthews would be on TV every week. I don't think that will surprise anyone who's followed by reviews for sometime and is therefore aware that she's one of my favourites from my SHIMMER review series also. Unfortunately she was really only here to put Hirsch over, although she did look a solid, veteran hand in doing so. I liked that we saw a different side of Leyla than we've seen over recent ROH episodes; not able to grapple and dominate her opponent on the mat this time, she instead got to showcase that she's also a lethal striker. 

Ian Riccaboni announces a bunch of matches for Zero Hour featuring the likes of AR Fox, Shane Taylor, Leyla Hirsch, The WorkHorsemen and Josh Woods - then runs down the Death Before Dishonor card.

It is significant that Bennett and Taven are in a four corner tag match tonight, because in 24 hours time they'll be in the exact situation with Aussie Open, Best Friends and the Lucha Bros with the ROH Tag Titles on the line. They cannot afford to pick up any injuries here, but also won't want to let any of these lower ranked teams gain ground on them in championship contention (particularly Andretti and Martin, with whom they have history). Former WWE/NXT stars Bollywood Boyz make an ROH debut here.

Bennett and Drake tee off on each other from the bell, whilst Darius gives Taven a bulldog into the bottom rope. Sit-out powerbomb from Henry to Martin gets 2. The Kingdom and The WorkHorsemen take turns working Darius over; but their alliance falls apart when Taven tries to pin him after hitting Just The Tip. Martin hits a double DDT on The Kingdom...only to be smashed into the corner by Drake and Henry instead. REBOUND ELBOW to the floor from Bennett to Henry! He tries to do the same to JD...but Drake counters with a straight right hand! Andretti dives onto both of them with a somersault plancha, as Martin makes a big tag to the Bollywood Boyz. They throw superkicks around to all opponents then hit a flying elbow/backbreaker combo on Bennett for 2. Kick Of The King from Taven to Andretti! Proton Pack on Gurv! Bennett pins him, giving Kingdom the win at 06:22

Rating - ** - It was a six minute main event, and realistically they achieved as much as they possibly could with it. The Kingdom stood out as villains, the Bollywood Boyz were held back for a nice pop when they finally came in, Andretti and Darius squeezed in a few highspots, Drake and Henry were as solid as always. It isn't the fault of anyone involved that this didn't feel remotely worthy of being the main event

Tape Rating - * - Lets talk about the positive first; Trish/Utami was really good, and the actual match itself between Castle and Taylor was perfectly solid for the time given. A run-time closer to 90 minutes than three hours definitely helps ROH TV as well. But this episode flat-out sucked. It sucked from a booking perspective (not having Taylor win the tournament, having weeks of aimless TV then chucking a PPV card together at the last second with a load of video package), it sucks that none of ROH's main male champions ever do anything of substance on ROH TV even on a go-home episode before a PPV like this. Even the layout of the episode sucks with a completely forgettable six minute filler tag match main eventing. This is a pre-taped show, why the hell did they not re-cut it to have Taylor/Castle or Trish/Utami go on last?! They could've cut so much crap from this episode and just given more time to things like Taylor/Castle, the four-way tag, Adora/Hayashishita etc. But this is the reality of what Ring Of Honor is now. After-thought wrestling, non-existent booking, a Dark replacement, keeping the zombified corpse of ROH on life support for a few random PPV's a year plus some prop championships on television to get AEW guys over. It is fair to say my excitement isn't particularly high for the forthcoming PPV...